Hello, hello, hello. It’s summer so run through a sprinkler, let a Popsicle drip down your arm, go see live comedy.

The Big Guy and I have started producing shows and the performers and audiences have been fabulous. Every time the door opens there are smiles and hugs and handshakes—you don’t see that at the movie theater. Support local talent–go to shows, throw a few bucks in a tip jar, meet new people, run into old friends. You are always appreciated. Except for that one guy—he knows who he is

I will be doing a video interview this month, but I’m not sure who with yet. Check out Run the Light on ModestoView.com and be surprised.

I wonder if anyone reads this column, so this month I am starting a story series and the continuation of the story depends on you. Any response will mean I continue. It is a romance story I am writing in a style I call “even worse than my monthly column”. Charles Dickens better watch out because I’m coming after him. The story doesn’t have a title yet, so send me suggestions. Here goes:

He was the shell of a man who at one point could’ve cared, but didn’t, because he was a shell, and shells can’t care. That’s not one of their abilities. He was handsome by the standards of both shells and narrators. His presence was enough to pause the narration for wistful wondering.

If I were to put my ear to his chest would I hear the vastness of the sea, or the beating of a heart yearning to be loved? Have I been taking this whole shell thing too far? Are readers beginning to think there is an actual shell involved?

None of this mattered. Fate would play out as it has through the ages: mountains, seas and buildings rising and falling taking civilizations with them. Today, Fate’s duty would be to bring together the shell of a man and a narrator who are both looking for love and reassurance that the person they both call Aunt Carol was really just an Aunt in title, not an actual relation. Being as this is a family paper, Aunt Carol was a woman who was a close friend to both of their families and not blood-related so it wasn’t a creepy meetup, but it was definitely awkward.